LTo THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "]
Sin,—In your interesting notice of Mr. Browning's new volume, you give a paraphrase of the fourth line of his introductory lyric which seems to me hardly correct. The limb is,—" Where is the spot?" which you expand thus : —" Where is the spot where the redundant summer and the abundant blueness find their way into the soul so as to satisfy it ?"
Would it not be simpler to suppose that Mr. Browning meant, —" In spite of the summer and the blueness, there is a spot somewhere?" This idea is suggested in his first line, "Want- ing is—what ?" and also in the fifth. Indeed, it seems to be the motif of the poem. Taking the words in this more natural sense, you escape the abrupt ellipsis which, as you say, has the nature of an electric shock.—I am, Sir, &c., R. F. D. [Most likely our correspondents are right, but it is a very- unusual thing to use " spot" as " blemish," without a context that at once suggests it.—En. Spectator.]
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